According to recent surveys, 1 of every 3 people of all ages across the globe track their wellness with wearables. (China pads this number and is by far in the lead for monitoring.) Accenture’s data that shows 20% of all Americans under the age of 65 track their health and fitness with some type of monitoring wearable, and a whopping 17% of Americans over the age of 65 do the same.
Only guessing, but I figure those over 65 were provided a fitness tracker by a loving child. (Hello? Pesky non-neighbors? How many steps today?)
I started with a series of UP bands (hard to sync and easy to break), progressed to the Fitbit HR2 (hijacked by my son), and then upgraded to the Blaze (Fitbit’s most advanced option when I purchased it), and recently added the Apple Watch 3 to my collection upon my favorite brother’s recommendation.
Trying to decide between Fitbit’s newest creation, Ionic, and Apple’s Series 3, he suggested that the Apple Watch offered better heart health options. I took his advice… but right now I look like some crazy person because I’m wearing my slowly dying Fitbit Blaze on one arm and an Apple Watch on the other. That’s in addition to talking into my arm like a Dick Tracy wanna-be… playing with the ability to make/accept calls from my wrist.
My initial thoughts:
- The Apple Watch requires daily charging to Fitbit’s 4 day battery life — UGH!
- The Apple Watch counts calories expended and the Fitbit counts how many steps you take. Reserving my opinion to give this a real chance although my first blush is that I don’t like it.
- What this really means is that the Apple Watch is more about overall fitness (it also tracks standing vs sitting and breathing time-outs for stress, etc.) while the Fitbit is all about exercise.
- Both track heart rates and sleep but are not exactly matching up — Fitbit says I slept 6 hr 8 min, Apple says I slept 6 hr 47 min; Fitbit says my resting heart rate is 64, while Apple says it’s 60. My body says I slept 15 minutes and my heart rate is good enough for an old, white chick.
If you’re thinking about buying a fitness tracker, hold off for a week or so until my next review. By then, I’ll have more experience with the Apple Watch and its health app options. Dharma will keep an eye on your fitness progress until then…
